Historical heat responsible for Enceladus's plume

Jing Luan (Caltech) - November 17, 2014 at 12:10 pm

Enceladus's plume indicates a subsurface ocean, but its current
heating rate is far less than enough to maintain water liquid. We propose
that it was heated up when it was deep in mean motion resonance with
Dione. Although it has already retreated from large depth in resonance,
its historical heat still supports a subsurface ocean, producing plumes on
its south pole. Enceladus underwent many heating-cooling cycles, which is
made possible by co-evolution of its internal structure and orbital
dynamics.